Sunday, April 4, 2010

What do Google, Wikipedia, Flickr, British rock band Oasis and American icon Bob Dylan have in common?

Not welcomed in China, at least partially.

According to a report by StarPulse, Bob Dylan has canceled his planned Asian tour this month after he was reportedly refused permission to play in Shanghai and Beijing. His tour should have included stops at Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong.

According to the report, "Jeffrey Wu, of Taiwan-based promotion company Brokers Brothers Herald, says, 'China's Ministry of Culture did not give us permission to stage concerts in Beijing and Shanghai, so we had no alternative but to scrap plans for a Southeast Asian tour. The chance to play in China was the main attraction for him. When that fell through everything else was called off. What Björk did definitely made life very difficult for other performers. They are very wary of what will be said by performers on stage now.'"

Björk made an onstage protest about the Chinese occupation of Tibet at a concert in 2008.